Don't Waste Your Time
by gawilliams
Summary: Bones tells Hacker that she's not interested. This takes place right after The Proof In The Pudding.


_Here's a short one where Bones tells Hacker to back off once and for all. I thought of it after this latest episode with Hacker's scenes in the diner and then at the lab where he tried to impress Bones. I think the Hacker character is rather good in a goof ball sort of way who fits the ideal description of having been promoted to the level of ones own incompetence. I hope you all like this one._

_Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. _

The night had been a stressful one, and Bones was more than ready to go home and sleep. Booth had let her know that it had been the Secret Service that had caused the uproar the night before, and she had just got off the phone with a few influential people who assured her that the Secret Service would know not to mess with her and the Jeffersonian ever again. She'd let Cam know the result of her conversations, without alluding as to who she had spoken to, and the other woman had been relieved.

When she gathered her things together she turned her attention to Booth. She had once again almost seriously damaged their friendship when she had hurt him with her reference to his ancestor, John Wilkes Booth. The hurt in his eyes had been painful to witness, and the small little lie she had told Booth in the lab that the skeleton had not been JFK's was worth any amount of anguish over not being honest. She was an expert in her profession, and was recognized as a world authority in Forensic Anthropology. She was deadly certain that the skeletal remains had indeed been JFK's, and it pained her that Booth's faith in the government was in fact shattered, though she had given it back to him with her lie. He barely kept his sanity together considering his guilt over his actions as a sniper, and did so only because he had faith that his government was doing the right thing.

She had also seen something disturbing. In the past she'd seen Booth's deadly skill with firearms, but last night she'd seen him in a mode that she hoped never to see again. He'd put all his skills as a sniper toward the experiment, and the look on his face, the cold, hard focus of his eyes, scared her. Not that she felt that he would ever hurt her, but the pain and guilt he worked so hard to keep under control was present for the first time, and she was horrified that he had to deal with that. Despite Hodgins logical comments about the experiment, even the "Bug and Slime Guy" had been visibly disturbed by the look of Booth during the experiment. Bones hated the fact that the military had essentially trained Booth to be a lethal killer if the need ever arose. The fact that he had been able to avoid falling over the precipice into insanity over the knowledge of what he'd been required to do was amazing. His clinical statement of what to look for and where on the skull for an exit wound was also disturbing in it's implications.

Before she could go home, though, she had one more thing to deal with. Andrew Hacker. The man's bravado that morning had been aggravating. She had never rescheduled a date with him, and had no intention to. But the man still tried to "score points" with her, as Angela would say. She was well aware that the guy only wanted to sleep with her, and in the past she would have readily agreed with that idea in order to deal with her biological imperatives, and had almost fallen into that mode of thinking when he originally let her know that he was interested in just that. But she'd realized some things on that half date and the subsequent months where she'd gotten closer to Booth. She wasn't interested in being someones piece of ass anymore just so that so she could get her yake care of her biological imperatives and then move on. She wanted something serious, and despite Booth's "atta girl sorta way" comment when she got back from Guatemala, she was sure that Booth wanted the same thing and with her.

As she drove to the Hoover Building, she continued to think about what a disaster it would have been if she had slept with Hacker. Angela had been angry that she had even accepted a date with him, and subsequently had brought up Sully. The more that Bones thought of it, she understood more how much her dating Sully had hurt Booth, and that Hacker would have been much worse since Sully had only been Booth's colleague, not his supervisor like Hacker was. When she got the the FBI headquarters she made her way to Hacker's office, nodding in greeting to the various people she knew. When she got there she knocked and entered, noting that he was not doing much in the way of work. In fact he was reading a magazine. On closer inspection she saw that it was a pornographic magazine that published sex stories from readers. She didn't have anything against that, but at work? It was just one more reason why dating Hacker was just so wrong.

"Temperance!" Hacker said as he shoved the magazine into his desk drawer. He stood up, forgetting that he was hard as a rock from reading that last story.

Bones arched her brow when she noticed the tent in his pants where he had an erection. "Please sit down, Andrew," she told him with a glare. She may have caused that physiological reaction in Booth a number of times during their numerous, but one sided, conversations about sex in the past, but this was simply rude and boorish in her opinion.

Hacker instantly sat down, not embarrassed in the least since his goal was to bed this beautiful woman eventually. The only thing standing in his way was Booth and the guy's total Knight in Shining Armor image. How can a guy compete with that???

"Is there anything I can do for you, Temperance?" he asked.

"I'm here to request that you don't waste your time, Andrew," she said, boiling it down to a simple statement.

"I don't understand," Hacker said with that rather childish look on his face that made him look like an uncouth idiot.

"I'm not interested in you, Andrew," she said firmly. "I was interested when you approached me as I have not had a man in some time, but I realized during our abortive dinner and the case that I worked on with Booth that week that I am desiring Booth, not some ephemeral sexual pleasure. Please do not try and pursue me anymore."

Hacker stared at her in shock. He'd just been shot down before he'd even had a real chance to prove anything yet! Damn! He blurted out the only thing he could think of, though he knew that he had no leg to stand on with that one, especially after what had gone down the night before. "What's so damn great about Booth?"

Bones turned and looked at the man. "It's simple, really," she said with a shrug. "Booth is genuine, while you're just an act. Good bye, Andrew." She said that and left, leaving an open mouthed, and seriously deflated Andrew Hacker staring after her. Now she could go home, get some rest, and then start planning on how to convince Booth to eliminate his line and give them a chance. She was more sure than ever that she was ready to catch up to reality.

_A/N: I got this characterization of Hacker from the portrayal that was in the new episode The Proof in the Pudding. Maybe a bit of a stretch on him, but I think fairly accurate. This is a simple one shot, but I wanted to do something that recognized an epiphany of sorts for Bones coming out of this latest episode. I hope you all enjoyed it. Gregg._


End file.
